This invention relates to housings for bathroom ventilators or the like, and more particularly to an improved such housing having novel knockout hole and wiring compartment covers therefor.
The Underwriter's Laboratory, Inc. sets industry guide lines for bathroom ventilator safety requirements. Among one such requirement is that the area surrounding a knockout portion of a ventilator housing--i.e., that portion of the housing which is knocked out to provide an ingress/egress hole or holes for the electrical wiring of the ventilator--must have a minimum thickness of 0.032". The National Electrical Code requires also that any unused knockout hole in the housing must be plugged.
The knockout portions of housings of the type described are utilized, of course, to expedite the installation of the associated electrical appliance. U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,069, for example, discloses a knockout hole cover or support for a range-hood of the canopy type. The hole cover or support is adapted to be releasably secured over a knockout hole in the housing by means of a screw. The support itself has therein a hole to which the incoming power cable is mechanically coupled or clamped, after which the support, which is in the form of a disc, is secured over a hole that has been formed in the housing by punching out a knockout portion of the housing. The disadvantage of this construction, however, is that it supports or consists of only one hole for accommodating one incoming cable, and does not cover any unused holes.
The Underwriter's Laboratory and the National Electrical Code also require that all field wiring connections be contained within an outlet box, and that the outlet box be provided with a cover which can be removed for inspection of the wiring connections between the incoming power and the leads from the associated appliance, for example the motor of a ventilator fan.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide for an electrical appliance an improved housing of the type described having a novel knockout hole support or cover which is capable of functioning both as a wire support and as a cover for unused knockout holes in the housing.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved housing of the type described which has incorporated therein an inexpensive, removable wiring compartment cover which registers with selected portions of the housing walls to form therewith an outlet box or wiring compartment in the housing.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent hereinafter from the specification and from the recital of the appended claims, particularly when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.